#trans chara is me is her is me is her is we is us . a lot of who she was resonated n i LOVE HERRR… hand in hand spinning in circles floating

[lemongogo]

pearly drops i cry while you sleep .. song ov the century xx

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Alright, I've finished looking into the Mordred situation. The TL;DR is that Mordred (Fate) has been disqualified from the tournament moving forward.

My initial reasoning in allowing characters from across the gender spectrum (i.e. Chara, Nimona, Perihelion/ART) was that "girlboss" is a term some nonbinary and male individuals have applied to themselves, or had applied to them by others that they then accepted. Gender experiences are broad and characters who fail to see themselves as "girls" may still be comfortable seeing themselves as "girlbosses." (Similarly, there are many people who embrace being a girl but reject being a woman, or vice-versa - one of my headmates is among these.

However, the parts of Mordred's story that are commonly read as trans or gender-nonconforming elements seem to reject the idea that "girlboss" is an appropriate label for him. For those unfamiliar with the Fate franchise, here are the bullet points. (Note that I myself am not a Fate fan, so any Fate fans in the audience, correct me if I'm wrong on any of these or missed important points.)

Mordred's description in his Saber form uses he/him pronouns for him in multiple places.

Mordred's description in his Saber form explicitly states that "treating him as a woman" will activate his rage (as will "being too obvious about treating him as a man.")

In the original Japanese, Mordred uses a set of first-person pronouns that, while not explicitly gendered, are usually associated with a masculine adult.

There are multiple instances where Mordred snaps and makes violent threats at other characters for referring to him as a "girl" or "woman."

For the sake of balance, I'll also note the following points against the idea of a transmasculine Mordred:

Mordred's description in Rider form uses she/her pronouns for her, as well as stating (in one translation) that she is avoiding grappling with her identity issues in order to enjoy her time at the beach.

Mordred is listed by the game explicitly in multiple places as being female. Contrast this to other canonically trans or gender nonconforming characters in the franchise, such as the nonbinary-coded Astolfo (whose gender is omitted "at their request") and the canonically transfeminine Leonardo Da Vinci (whose gender is listed as "young girl.")

Other characters use she/her pronouns for Mordred frequently.

I have chosen to exclude Mordred from this tournament because most of the points that support his masculine identity deal with his own image of masculinity, and what terms he self-applies, whereas the points against are generally based in his relationship to others and the frameworks that they put upon him.

In practical terms, this means that Nana Daiba (Revue Starlight) is automatically the winner of Round 1 Match 86 and advancing to the next round regardless of the results of the vote. The loser of Round 1 Match 85, Odin (The Bifrost Incident) vs. Enma Ai (Jigoku Shoujo) will automatically win her first match in the loser's bracket, as there is no longer a loser from Round 1 Match 86 for her to battle. Apologies to the fans of Mordred who read his character as feminine and were rooting for her in this poll. Despite my making this decision, I do not endorse any unkindness to the submitter of Mordred, or those who voted for him.

Finally, I would like to apologize to any transgender or gender nonconforming fans of this poll who were offended by Mordred's inclusion in this poll or felt that it made the poll an unsafe or unaccepting place for them. I was not made aware of the complications surrounding this character's gender prior to the tournament, and had I known I would likely have excluded him on similar grounds. As a plural system in which many members are trans, I hope you will be able to forgive and trust us for this error in judgement and recognize that we are doing our best to moderate a poll involving many franchises with which we are not ourselves familiar. It is never our intention to erase the experiences of any transgender individual or invalidate any transgender representation with which those people identify.

[scummy-writes]

Hello, please call me Scum! If that is too direct for you, you can call me Scummy as an alternative.

I am 29, I go by she/her pronouns, and I use this blog to post my fanfiction as well as my general fandom ramblings and such. I am primarily interested in Ikevamp and Ikepri, though I generally like other eng cybird games as well.

I am pretty explicit at times, and primarily write smut, so I do not want minors following me.

My main account is @strawberry-scum. I do not recommend following it, however if you want to properly block me, you need to block that account as well as this one.

─── •✧ Favorites

Prince: Gilbert, Roderic, Clavis, Silvio, Chev, Keith

Vamp: Isaac, Arthur, Theo, Comte

Villains: Elbert, Alfons, Victor

Tier list here!

─── •✧ Ships (between suitors)

Gilbert/Roderic, Gilbert/Silvio, Gilbert/Chev, Gilbert/Clavis, Isaac/Arthur, Arthur/Theo, Theo/Isaac, Comte/Sebas - and variations of these ships with mc or an oc in a poly relationship.

─── •✧ Other Blogs

✧ @ikemen-daily-questions - a blog centered on popping out a question daily to think about in regards to your fave character

✧ @c-bookwyrm - Oc blog for my ikepri oc Constance

✧ @askgilbertvonobsidian - askblog where I rp Gilbert

✧ @letters-from-ikemen - a blog where other writers and I fill out letter requests from your fave ikemen. Requests are open, and we're still recruiting new writers!

─── •✧ Writing Info

✧ I am not a stickler for IC / OOC. I believe that since we're not official writers for these games, everything we write is OOC. I personally will try to stick to my belief of what I think IC for the character based on what I interpret from the game and don't like arguments about this.

✧ I enjoy gentle femdom, and so loose aspects of that (if the fanfic is not centered on that) will sometimes pop up

✧ I usually don't see any of the characters as strictly straight and so will ship suitors together at times, or have the suitors romantically interested in each other when writing polyships. I will also reblog trans hcs and such too if I enjoy them. If that bothers you please just leave me be.

✧ Due to liking Gilbert, I'm now able to have a character I feel like I can explore kinks and themes that I felt like I couldn't with Isaac. Unfortunately, Isaac is the outlier in my normal flavor of faves from before the cybirdie games.

(I will not write noncon)

✧ Always happy to answer qs about my fics or blog

✧ I have a lot of issues IRL and so it's hard for me to write often, and guilt associated with this is why I do not do requests often.

✧ I don't fuck with people who turn writing into a weird fight for popularity with each other, or who just write for notes/attention rather than the joys of creating. I prefer having healthier views on writing and fandom content as a whole!!!

─── •✧ Misc Info

✧ I am unsure of how others view me, but I am rather anxious and shy, so I often do not talk to people. I am also quite busy when I am online, and so messages may be neglected since I do get a good amount of them. I Love to talk to others!! I do not mind (polite) asks and such!! Just....busy and shy.

✧ A huge part of fandom for me is reading other people's interpretations of characters. I think discussion surrounding characters is fun, and I enjoy seeing the various conclusions people come to about how a character is. Because of this, you may see me 'contradict' some things ive written when reblogging others works/discussions, or even discussing things on my own. It's just fun to consider a character through multiple angles.

✧ I can't figure out tone often with the use of anon, and in general I don't do well with 'overfamiliar rudeness' with people I do not know. So please no playfully rude messages on anon...

✧ I treat everyone as equally as possible. More specifically I do not believe there are '#1 fans' of charas, I don't think a follower count = fandom respect levels, etc etc. Unfortunately if you're pretty rude to me, even after a chance to step back, then I'm likely going to be rude back/block.

✧ I've had this blog since 2017, and I've been writing for longer than that. I like being creative, even if I struggle a lot. I am lucky enough to have my writing in a physical zine, and that is gouda enough for me.

✧ I consider this a writing AND fandom blog, and that is why I will make posts about fandom, as well as the games I enjoy, beside my writing. Unfortunately I am more than just my writing, so my blog will reflect that! I also unfortunately will have some opinions about fandoms if I see a lot of shitty behavior.

✧ A lot of my interests outside of these games deal with horror and heavier themes, so this is primarily why I don't recommend following my main!! I rb horror fanart sometimes and have more personal posts on there.

✧ I used to create for My*me, but I no longer wish to participate with that fandom. If you ever have specific questions regarding my fanfics from that time, feel free to ask, but keep in mind I may not always want to answer.

─── •✧ Last Updated 09122024

[cat-collections-agency]

INTRODUCTION!!

We're the Cat Collection Agency. We're just a bunch of cats in a trenchcoat >:3

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Basic info

->collective name is cat

->18

->FICTIVE HEAVY

->use anypronouns EXCEPT she/her

->perfer I/me over we/us

->trans masc

->omniromantic, demisexual

->please use cat neos we love those

->collectively alterhuman/therian/fictionkin

->audhd/bpd

->we do not like conflict :3

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Our sources

-Undertale/aus/deltarune: Killer!Sans, Cross!Sans, Story swap!Chara, Swapfell!Sans, Fellswap!Sans

-Pokemon: Grunty Boy, Team Sky Mikey, Leon, Arven, Fennec, Kestrel, Volo(kestrel and fennec are autojects)

-Hetalia/countryhumans: Prussia, 2p!Prussia, Ch!Prussia, Neko!Prussia, Holyrome, America, chibi!Prussia, Nyo!Prussia, Nyo 2p!Prussia, Nato

-Sonic: Sonic

-My little pony: Flufflepuff, Screwball

-Obey me: Mammon

-Dc: Lego Joker

-Brainmade: Zaphod, Finx, Apollo, Azrail, Finx

-Factives(?):Shroomy, Misfit, Spotty, Cerberus, Solo.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

We support

💜Non-Traumagenic systems/systems of all types(including: endo, tulpa, willow, etc.)

💚otherkin/alterhuman/fictionkin safespace

🧡fictives/factives/irls/fictionkins including those with problematic sources(as long as they don't support the creators.)

❤️welcoming to lgbtq+ community(radqueerz DNI)

🤍SFW agere/petre friendly

🩷non-harmful identities

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆DNI

●bigotry(homophobia, transphobia, ableism, racism, etc)

●terfs

●transid, transmed, truscum.

●anti-endos/sysmeds

●fakeclaimers of any kind

●'headmate economy' and their supporters.

●people who villainze mental illness/health

●proship/compship supporters.

●pro-contact harmful paraphillias

●people who participate in nsfw agere

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[shopcat]

what is your favourite steve hcs like who the ultimate steve in your eyes is

oh man so easy. he's the most autistic on earth. to me. also think he's transmasc and like importantly ☝️ i also think he's comfortable with it :) for some reason (cis) ppl i think just cannot fathom a story of a "unexpected" chara being some level of i guess stealth trans and not in the depths of drama and pain about it bc they literally will only ever use us to fetishise or exploit us they don't like actually care for any level of normality and average trans existence because we literally just can't live ... normal lives ... steve harrington can't be transgender to them bc that's more unbelievable that he once SHOOK OFF a concussion. OR inversely like, him being trans can't depth or symbolism. i just think he is cuz it's fun it's the most fun ever he's literally The guy of the show he's The fan service and the cool action hero and the silly comic relief love interest-with-no-love-interest him being a literal self made trans man rules and is cool and hot and makes him sexier in every way <3 and honestly yeah ESPECIALLY in the time period bc ... trans... people have always existed... Even in small towns... crazy‼️

other than that i like most interations of The transgenderism. i think he and robin share pronouns at some point in their lives. i think he wears glasses to read but i also think he's always worn glasses and just hid it. i like the migraine thing bc i get migraines.. many of my friends think he's jewish on his mom's side generally nonpracticing and i think that rules insanely and is real forever now. also italian bc that's awesome. i think he can cook and he learnt using his mom like box of recipe cards that were passed down from his grandma i also think he's close with all his grandparents bc that's sweet and i like to think his grandma on his mom's side lives in a nearby city and he can visit her whenever and it's awesome there

ummm i think he's scared of dogs bc of the demodogs anything above the like calf and he will Not be entering the abode ❌ and he owns like 6 or 7 cats just a crazy amount of cats bc there was a feral colony behind his house and he looked after them and started reintroducing them to the indoors and he's Incredibly determined to spay neuter and rehome when possible every feral cat in all of hawkins post mews's death he like makes it his mission bc he's like um what if there's more dogs or something they're literally unsafe.. there's monsters afoot.. i need to save them in the depths of his upside down recovery moment when he had like no friends other than dustin and nothing else to do and it grew from there. he can't volunteer at the animal place tho bc There's doggies there ... i also think he eventually gets over the dog thing bc i like the idea of wayne owning a doberman or rottie or mastiff or something and through introduction to her he becomes more comfortable through the power of LOVE ‼️

also bc of that i like the idea of him going into some sort of animal rehabilitation or forestry thing i want him in the woods running around. wearing khaki shorts and boots with a zinc stripe on his nose. UGH. and specifically i want him to work with kids or just people in general somehow bc it can get potentially lonely in some of those jobs i think he is the top contender for like a day camp counsellor or even a sleep away if those exist in indiana .. all of this also wraps up into the whole taking his cpr cert or doing a first aid/emt course. also i can just picture him being like And here's the lake where a lake monster nearly drowned me. yeah. isn't that awesome. it's because i wasn't wearing a life jacket he preys on kids without life jackets.

erm. i also think he likes gardening esp food bc it branches into his cooking thing but it would take a couple years to build any of this up current age steve harrington is born to be a minimum wage princess who lays on people's basement floors and makes out with stoners and paints robins nails horribly. and reads magazines. and steals food from people. he is my beautiful loser and rep for every 20 year old layabout who doesn't know what they're doing in life. And he likes boys.

[bishipsaremyships]

whats up with your guys rp universe?

You've activated my special interest trap card :]

Uhhhh going under a read more bc I'm always self conscious that someone will get annoyed with a long post <3

So the RP-verse is me and Chara's version of Genshin told through our discord roleplays and our personal headcanons.

The majority of it tends to circle around whatever characters we hyperfixate on for whatever period of time. Example, at the beginning, it focused mostly in Mondstadt bc Chara was fixated on Venti and Kaeya and I was fixated on Diluc, Rosaria, and Benny's Adventure Team. Currently, Chara is fixated on Freminet, Lyney and Lynette (whom we have dubbed Orphan Trio) while I have fixated on Furina and Neuvillette.

The basis of the universe is mostly the same, its just riddled with a lot of self-indulgent bullshit. Like, the most recent headcanon that has been added to the list is that Candace and Kaeya are distant cousins.

Other self-indulgent headcanons from the RP-verse:

Gorou is a trans woman who changes her name to Hina after she discovers that Miko is using her image for a waifu

Diluc and Eula are in a marriage of convience, currently still just engaged. Eula doesn't want to be a Lawrence anymore and Diluc would like to stop being hit on when he's manning the bar at Angel's Share. It's a win-win.

Arlecchino uses she/him pronouns. She also still goes by "Lord Arlecchino" instead of "Lady Arlecchino".

Yoimiya, Heizou, Kazuha, and Tomo are all members of the Arataki Gang.

Xiao and Kokomi are dating. Kokomi is also married to Hina. Xiao is also dating Aether.

Heizou and Tighnari are dating. Tighnari is also married to Cyno. Heizou is also dating Kazuha, Aether, Xiao, and Venti.

Aether has a very large polycule. His boyfriends include: Kaeya, Kazuha, Xiao, Albedo, Venti, and Heizou. I think I might be forgetting one, but I cannot remember for the life of me.

Ayato and Itto are dating.

Ayaka and Sara are dating. Sara is also married to the Raiden Shogun. Not Ei! Specifically the Shogun. Ei is married to Miko.

Heizou and Sara are found family, they seeing each other as siblings. It eventually culminates to the point where they each change their surnames to the same one; 'Fujiwara'.

Heizou wears one of Sara's tengu feathers braided into his hair.

It's been ten years since Diluc's 18th birthday and the Ragbros are forgiven each other and reconciled more-or-less, but because they're both too proud, they've never spoken their apologies out loud. It's still messing with their relationship.

Lady Ragnvindr (named Aurora) is still alive and the only reason she's not in Mondstadt is because she left for Natlan when Crepus died and Diluc left for Snezhnaya. She tried to convince Kaeya to come with her since she believed both her husband and first son to be dead and she didn't want to lose the last of her family, but she failed to convince him.

Both the Ragbros view Adelinde as a secondary mother figure.

Adelinde and Verr Goldet are sisters.

I fully believe in the cannibal Adelinde theory. Do with that what you will.

I think this one might actually be canon, but I don't know enough about Miko's lore to say anything. But! Miko raised the Kamisato siblings after Lord and Lady Kamisato died. She is the reason Ayato is Like That. Ayaka is also Like That, but she is so much better at hiding it.

Ganyu gives Childe archery lessons after Zhongli and Childe get engaged.

Albedo has been sent many letters from the Sumeru Akademiya, requesting that he become a Spantamad professor, but he just ignores the letters.

Sucrose is a current student at the Akademiya. She's currently using her abroad study time to be back in her home of Mondstadt to learn under Albedo. She is an Amurta student with some heavy interest in Spantamad teachings as well.

Cyno, Yanfei, and Heizou are with Aether when the Traveler goes to Fontaine. Instead of Aether being Lyney and Lynette's attorney during their trial, Yanfei steps up. Heizou punches Lyney in the face after he learns Orphan Trio are Fatui. Cyno has an autistic amount of interest in the Oratrice.

Heizou has trauma about the Fatui. He had taken an obsessive amount of interest in a missing person's case that Aether had filed for Lumine's disappearance. Heizou eventually got a lead about a potential sighting of Lumine and he ended up walking into a trap laid by the Fatui. His arm was broken and he almost got shipped off to Snezhnaya where he would have presumably been killed for meddling in things he shouldn't have.

Oh, yeah, the Fatui that Heizou almost got kidnapped by were under Arlecchino's command, so Heizou has it rough in Fontaine.

Wanderer is named Tozen which is an Inazuman name that means "the deserving one".

Kaeya and Heizou join Aether when he goes to Sumeru.

Instead of Aether doing the Sumeru Desert questlines, Kaeya and Heizou run off to do them. They take Kaveh and Nilou with them. Jeht ends up falling in love with Nilou. Liloupar and Sorush get attached to Kaeya.

Kaeya knows how to weild a catalyst and he becomes a healer during the Desert Quests. He's kinda shit at it, but he's decent enough that no one bleeds out after they have a run-in with a Consecrated Beast.

There's a lot more, but my brain is failing me for more right now <3

[alesseia]

make me write: poll!!

jumping on the poll bandwagon because I have not touched Scrivener in FOREVER (read: two weeks)

unfortunately, I do not have multiple stories like most people on Writeblr since I keep fixating on the same story and its characters, lmao, so IDK if I can do the same thing everyone else is doing

HOWEVER, I will be taking my thesis in BFA Creative Writing this year and I am going to do doing something based on my main story! I was planning on finishing Book 1 (which I already have 4 chapters for), but my thesis adviser is heavily discouraging I do a full novel (minimum requirement for word count is only 15k and we're supposed to finish writing that with revisions by early December) so I've got a bunch of backup plans just in case I can't convince her!!

so here's a poll + bonus read more for further description of thesis ideas!!

Book 1 (Excerpt)

This is actually the option my adviser recommended the most. I have already written the first four chapters, even doing major revisions, and that already hit the 15k minimum word count, so she said that just revising these chapters would be the easiest option.

My biggest gripe with this is that I don't want to end it after Chapter 4. It ends on a mediocre cliffhanger, and we don't meet the other two main characters until later on. Not to mention, the BFA CW majors in my university get to (independently) publish and sell copies of their thesis at the end of the year, so it would be much more satisfying if I do the full Book 1.

Anthology: Thematic

I was thinking I could do instead a thematic short story collection linking the common traits of the main characters (Axel, Avery, Leandro, and Nathan). Each of the short stories would focus on a different MC's backstory. The central theme would be their loneliness.

The stories are (without giving away certain plot twists in Book 1):

AXEL: a story about a group of friends playing together, which turns out to be a product of Axel’s imagination

AVERY: the story behind the fallout with her ex-friends

LEANDRO: Leandro talking to his family about getting friends while figuring out he's a trans guy

NATHAN: Nathan talking to other children working under his drug pimp spirit stain dealer

Anthology: Characterization

This one was inspired by fanfiction, specifically the concept of the same characters in alternate universes. How can you tell the character is still the same character when they have a completely different backstory and setting? Up to where do you draw the lines?

The various settings are:

Historical — Pride and Prejudice but set in the late Spanish colonial period and from the POV of Elizabeth’s (Avery) best friend (Axel)

Sci-fi time travel — From 2099 CE, Axel is asked to travel to 2013 Metro Manila to chase after a time-traveling criminal (Raven)

Urban fantasy (Aswangs) — Axel the friendly manananggal helping their friend Leandro, who recently discovered they’re a manananggal

Modern real-life — Axel signing up their friend Nathan on a blind date auction during high school fair season

Alesseia (Original) — Axel discussing how to beat Rex with all of their friends

Anthology: Timeline

A short story collection featuring the same character, likely Axel, at different points in the series. The series is divided into three arcs, so it would likely be:

Before Arc 1

Between Arcs 1 and 2

Between Arcs 2 and 3

After Arc 3

The Actual Book 1

The actual book 1 of Alesseia. Tentatively titled the Dragon's Deed. I really, really, REALLY want this, but like. it's gonna be what, 50k words 😭 so unless I pull a NaNoWriMo again, I can't blame Ma'am

Anyway if you read all that, thank you SO much!!! I really appreciate your support 😄 wishing you the best of luck with writing as well!!

[pop-roxs]

hoo okay I can already tell this is gonna be long but manga thoughts!! i only read up to roughly 150 I think (Also hi hi I’m off anon! anxiety has been overcome >D<)

quick lil context of me even getting into this also! so my roomie and I have a tradition of watching really bad animes during finals weeks and this time my rookie suggested we watched black butler 2 (still so funny it’s just 2 not season two not book of ___ no. just two. Peak comedy) first half of that was laughably bad and then like ep 7 onward it was frustratingly good. Some bizarre pacing some bizzare writing choices but I liked it overall. anyways over winter break out of nowhere I got manga spoilers on my tiktok for Agni’s death and. It emotionally devastated me bc I loved him sm bc of the like one ep in 2 where he appeared. i told my roomie that and we decided to like actually watch the good parts of the anime so I could get a taste of the actual plot (and eventually we watched s1 lmao)

so yeah that bit didn’t impact me as much when I actually read it but 😭 Agni I miss you dearly you’re like one of the only people I’d trust to hold my drink in this series I KNOW you would take care of it and not spill anything. Also, I read the entire (post campania) manga while procrastinating studying for my organic chemistry exam bc chemistry is a pain in the ass and I didn’t want to look at it

right um. Other arcs. so the school arc has some BIZARRE pacing- (and i never got used to the just casually dropping the F word even if it was used iba like historical context) I was half skimming some of the pages bc I thought it was gonna be basically a fluff filler arc so that end caught me off guard- deffo enjoyed the soma content though! i sure hope he stays happy and nothing awful happens to make him stop smiling! hahah fuck.

Emerald witch arc is kinda funny to me. like yeah, okay queen of England, send this 13 (14?? I forgor) year old child to a different country to deal with werewolves. this isn’t even ur country girly what. Wolf and miss sullivan (can’t spell her first name) r fun characters I like their addition a lot. Could’ve done without the uh. weird scenes with sullivan but. whatever. (The scenes with finny taking care of ciel also were so sweet Omg I will cry- finny is probably one of my top 5 charas I love himmmmm he scares me tho )

that being said I fuckcking RECOGNIZED that shit was chemicals as soon as I saw that circle thing oh my FuckKING GOD. I literally put down my phone and stopped reading for a good while. I’m reading this manga to procrastinate my ochem I did not need it to insert itself like that >:’(((( it was good though I liked the arc a a lot (my roommate fucking burst out laughing when she saw me being angy and asked why.)

Sascha and Walmart will (sorry sir you are just not memorable) were cute! Hope we get more content of them in the future, or just more reaper lore. Please. I’m going insane all I want is lore (Also my roomie had already told me abt the reaper backstory so that didn’t rlly surprise me). Will and grell showing up for like one chapter was funny as hell, you know will was pissed bc that whole convo could’ve totally been an email or a pigeon or whatever. i missed them though so im not complaining

Idk what to call the next arc. the return of the school guys was… funny ig?? i have to be honest I kinda disconnect whenever they appear I just don’t really care for them 😭 the whole band group off was so funny though and the tonal whiplash was something I was NOT prepared for. It wasn’t as jarring as the paving of the school arc but like hWUH THATS A LOT OF PLOT AND BIG REVEALS HAPPENING REALLY FAST NOW-

love othello though. I’m a forensics chemistry major and I love the forensics part of it significantly more than chemistry so seeing a funny guy doing that is so very !!! ya :D also love the dynamic with Grelle. they’re both trans and besties you can’t change my mind- ALSO OTHELLO JUST . THROWING HIS SCYTGE AND THEN BIDING BEHIND GRELLE. Love him. ronnies still my fav dont get me wrong I am endeared with his talk-shit-while-getting-his-ass-beat mentality but othello is very close behind

wish we had more reaper lore . I would kill to know these guys backstories- Ronald and sascha seem so much you her compared to their coworkers it eats at my brain. sascha especially like aaaaaa kid what happened for you to end up here :(? MAN (also I could fight abt the reaper lore for so long. they don’t deserve this. this shits unfair. AGH…

i had more stuff that I wanted to say but forgot. sorry if this isn’t very understandable i just wrote as I thought of things- basically. reapers my beloved . I’m begging for lore please . soma my king I hope you’re okay. when will Ronald come back PLEASE he’s been gone since like campania 😭

BRO ROOMMATE ANON REVEAL!! i hope you dont mind me still using the roommate anon tag,,

agnis death def threw me off. i wasnt expecting yana to kill him off, especially after having him around for so long. that whole scene was very surprising. and yes i agree with you!! hes probably the most wholesome character in black butler next to some others like the phantomhive servants and soma.

i actually quite liked the school arc(and a lot of people in the fandom would agree w me)! but i get how you wouldnt. i personally was only mostly focusing since i just wanted to get back to grelle T^T.

i didnt really like emerald witch at first. i was mad when it had the honor of being the 100th chapter. but its grown on me since(n yeah those scenes were weird..).

i LOOOOVEEE SASCHA!!!!!! THEYRE SO CUTEEEEE X33333 they remind me of my best friend since they both have that same cheery vibe. like little guy is just making the best out of their afterlie and havin some genuine fun. i fw it. grelles outfit was also sooo hot in that chapter gaw dayum. i want a piece of that reaper PLEASE

you can call the return of the school guys the boy band arc. it was weird but i really enjoyed it.

i find it funny how everyone automatically says that othello is trans. one look at the silly science man provokes the Feeling.

trust me man, everyone wants more reaper lore. i am clawing at yanas feet and begging her to tell me what in the ever living fuck happened to grelle in her time as a human. WHAT THE FUCK KINDA LIVES DID THEY LIVE. WHAT DROVE THEM TO SUICIDE.

i understood everything you wrote, dw!! :3 im hoping soma is ok as well </3

[nazuna-tunnel-vision]

re:your post about the she/her-ing of enstars characters! i just wanted to provide A Perspective on it. i recognize this probably isn't everyone's perspective and i don't want to claim to speak for everyone but i figured providing a perspective could maybe be helpful in some way and i do like thinking about fandom behaviours critically yknow! (and ig disclaimer ahead of time that i always use she/her for arashi, she's the exception to whatever i'll say below bc canon transfem character)

for me at least i tend to refer to characters with she/her if they're ones i specifically headcanon as transfem/mainly using she/her pronouns or if it's specifically requested by op of an art/etc and i'm reblogging it and adding commentary in the tags. for me the regulars are ibara/mayoi/sometimes hokuto or tomoya or hiyori, with veeery occasional one-offs of other characters . which is a fairly small group of characters in the grand scheme of things! but if everyone in the tag was doing that for the small group of characters they personally have those headcanons for, then eventually at some point it'll go around to every member of the cast. that might be part of why it seems to be oversaturating the tag; there's a lot of unique people here on enstarsblr with their own unique interpretations of the characters' genders.

another thing i think is worth pointing out is that since the characters for the most part in canon are cis men, it's not going to be as visibly obvious when someone headcanons a character as transmasc, since for the most part a transmasc version of an existing enstars character will be referred to similarly as they would be in canon. unless op specifically states it, there's no way of knowing if the he/him they're using to refer to an enstars character is meant in an adhering-to-canon cis way or an i-hc-this-character-transmasc way. i personally headcanon every iteration of nazuna, natsume, or jun that i talk about as transmasc, but that's not going to be as visibly obvious as my ibara/mayoi/etc. headcanons because there isn't a difference in pronouns between canon and the headcanoned version of them that exists in my head.

additionally, i'm asian - which has a big effect on how i personally approach trans enstars hcs, because my view on gender + the social structures informing it is directly informed by my lived experience as a trans asian person. i've personally lived through a LOT of microaggressive feminization sourced from the general feminization of the 'East' and asian people and bc of that (+ my general interest in studying gender + related expression as a social construct) i can say that i, at least, am critical of those potential sources of headcanons because of my personal experience and awareness of them. i can't guarantee this for every enstarsblr blogger obviously but idk. you can't know a person's entire lived experience and why they have the headcanons they do just by seeing them use she/her for a character consistently. i do think that you're bringing up a good point in that asian men - and in particular the specific kind of 'soft' masculinity that asian idols generally try to achieve - are overly feminized by the west, and it's definitely a good thing to keep in mind when making these hcs, but i also think it might be less of a source of these headcanons than we might think. nevertheless i will always encourage ppl to be critical of their own thought processes and think about why they make the headcanons they do!

i hope this uh. i dont know if this will help at all it got a bit long and rambly but i hope the perspective i brought could at least add something to the conversation!

hiya, thank you for writing this thoughtful reply! i was hoping for someone to provide some perspective when i wrote that post so i’m glad i got a reply, especially one as long as detailed as yours.

you bring up a very important point that we can't know a person's lived experiences and why they chose to use certain pronouns for a character just from their posts. it definitely would be bonkers to expect people to explain themselves every time they use not-usual pronouns for a character, or to expect them to add disclaimers that they are thinking critically.

(putting everything else under read more bc this made me think a lot. basically lots of thoughts about what it means to engage in fandom with a lot of conflicting interpretations of the work, especially with respect to gender)

---

i’m sort of thinking out loud here but like. i think it's a. very strange conundrum we face regarding gender in fandom. irl i usually use the principle of "we should just use whatever pronoun the person uses for themself". i’m a huge supporter of prioritising that individual above others who might be uncomfortable using a certain pronoun for a person they coded a different way.

i instinctively use this principle when engaging with fiction too, but. "use whatever pronoun the person themself uses" does not necessarily work in fandom because the characters themselves aren't real; they won't feel dysphoria from us assigning them genders or misgendering them. 

i think we should prioritise readers' experiences. but sometimes that reader experience involves headcanons and certain degrees of projection that makes interpretations diverge quite a bit. i'm not saying that projecting on characters is wrong, it’s quite the opposite; i know it can have very transformative and constructive impact on how the reader thinks about things and i 10/10 support it.

but it’s like. which interpretation do you privilege? can they even coexist? it’s not the same as more inane headcanons like “nazuna always cooks fried rice for others bc it’s the only thing he can actually cook”. (this is wrong, by the way. source: Trust Me [this is a joke, i’ve never actually given nazuna’s cooking skills much thought, despite being tumblr user nazuna-tunnel-vision. i don’t actually have thoughts about this. he does cook fried rice for ra*bits on multiple occasions though and they all love it. sorry for the sudden nazuna fun fact intermission. i couldn't help it])

gender headcanons inadvertently become a lot more personal and political. i can just ignore or skim over whichever fic or post that incorrectly talks about nazuna being terrible at cooking and still enjoy other nazuna-centric posts by that person. but i can’t really do the same for posts with differing interpretations of gender bc i’ll be reading normally and then get smacked out of the immersion with “???! the pronoun??”

i'm a little. sad and miffed about this because i think people who assign non-usual genders to characters tend to be very enthusiastic about these characters. i sure would love to read what they have to say and to bask in that energy, but i truly do not enjoy the physical sensation of being metaphorically hit in the face every time i come across a pronoun i did not expect to be used for that character.

---

and i know that this reply has already gotten plenty long but i’m also starting to wonder how much of me preferring people to stick to the pronouns that i’m used to comes from a place of privilege or conservativeness. there is my concern about people needlessly feminizing men who aren’t Buff Hollywood Male Men, but also the majority of my reply so far has basically just been “man i would prefer if people just stuck to my interpretation of gender where i can see it :/”. it reminds me a lot of straight pride and the protection of prevailing gender norms - you know, when people are homophobic and transphobic not necessarily because they’re evil and want to actively want to repress people, but because they’re personally uncomfortable with it. they just don’t want to see it and be made uncomfortable. the whole political stance of, “i don’t care if people want gay sex - they can do their own thing, it’s none of my business. but i do NOT want them to demand marriage equality where the rest of us can see it”. because marriage & the law is in the public sphere and isn’t easily blocked out. obviously these things are not of the same severity because we’re talking about headcanons about fictional characters here, but you get the idea. 

in hindsight i do wonder if my previous post should be archived because it does sort of send the message that it’d be nice if people change the pronouns they use for everyone-sans-arashi in the public enstars tag. like yeah it would be nice for my personal fandom experience, but i don’t want people in the tag to feel like they have to censor their words to make others in the fandom comfortable - especially if their gender headcanons for characters help them to explore their own conceptions of gender. or if it just makes their engagement with the story more fun. you guys have my full support even if the she/her-ing of enstars makes me instinctively flinch and bang my knee on the table every time i come across it. i will grit my teeth - or find some way to mute or block you guys if it really comes down to it - but never change!!

---

the topic of the privilege of comfort & the fact that i flinch at the she/her-ing mostly because of how it conflicts with my own interpretation of the characters also makes me wonder - is it the same for you when you come across people using he/him for characters that you identify as using she/her? since from your perspective, we are misgendering them.

my current guess is that it’s a little different because he/him is generally the more popular & mainstream interpretation. so you might be more aware of and prepared for he/him misgendering. or you’re simply more accepting of different gender interpretations because that was already your starting point to begin with. it probably doesn’t hit you out of the left field like it always does for me. i think! i dunno.

or maybe the characters’ gender identities are like little secrets between you and the character. so looking at people who misgender them might instead make you go, “haha look at this idiot who doesn’t know”. (i’m not sure if it’s appropriate to bring this up in a discussion that unexpectedly became pretty serious, but i think that’s a fun way of engaging with fiction and fandom.)

if there is a difference in the way we react to gender interpretations different from our own, i think it might reflect, to an extent, the way people irl deal with queerness and the whole sentiment about how being queer is valid, but somehow not valid enough to be seen in public (like at gay pride) or in the public sphere (like in laws). again, how we address fictional characters really doesn’t have the same gravity or consequence, but i think the sentiments behind it might be similar.

(another possible explaination is that i unfortunately need to touch grass because i'm taking headcanons and fictional characters' genders too seriously. can't cross that out!)

you don’t have to answer this though; it’s already more than enough that you took the time to reply to my initial post with my perspective! your reply really made me think a lot. thank you <3

[blaebeast]

Character Bio: Fuchsia

Name: Fuchisa, ??? (Deadname)

Age: 29

Sex: Didal (She/Her)

Weapon: Dagger

Faction: Unison, formerly Cult of Man

Occupation: Enforcer (Senior; Admin)

Relationship Status: Single

Close Friends: Tulri, Hrugar, Anthar, Zyke, Yulon, Mask, Salome, Cylia

Friends: Charae, Dodge, Lock, Cram,

Knows of: Millius, Omelette, Yuim, Zyria, Hadet, Orture, Shine, Tiruki

Family: Parents? Brother?

Goals and Motivations:

- I love to have sex and I love to make love. No part of myself is sacred. I wish to share myself with whoever and bring happiness using my body to whoever needs it.

- Unison is very prude and prone to sexual violence, although it isn’t as openly adressed as it should be, I want to implement better ways of being more sexually accepting, open and forward.

- I don’t think I would ever want to have kids. I have past trauma from my parents and other adults who abused me as a child, and I worry that I will be just as bad as them. Plus kids cry, poop, and use up a lot of time and money. I want to be a free lady.

- I am trans and don’t fully identify with being a didal. I love my body and I love what it does, but having what I’ve got makes me feel uneasy if I think about it too hard. I’m debating getting bottom surgery, but I don’t know if I ever will.

- I love working for Hrugar and think he’s a great guy that’s doing great work. I want to do whatever I can to make his work and life easier. I’m also super interested in seeing his penis.

- I want Salome and Tulri to get together already.

- I want Anthar and Cylia to become public.

- I run a sex club for Enforcers to be able to hook up and get their physical needs met. So far it’s been very successful.

- I am ex-member of a cult that celebrates Man and is eager for their return. This cult had wild ideas about sex and the roles we play for Man, and in return I was abused and put into a box I did not want to be in. I was told I had to be either male or female, and due to be being so well endowed, I was forced to take on a male role. I am constantly trying to run away from my past and I worry that they will find me and make me return to who I was before.

- I think Zyke’s pretty cute. It’s nice how much he wants me to be around.

Personality and Interests:

- I like to party, have fun and get loose.

- I love to flirt and I like to tease.

- I enjoy working hard so that I can play harder.

- I try really hard to get to know the people who work under me and help them meet their goals.

- I don’t know how to relax and I’m always in work mode.

- I like to make various forms of content for the internet. Even adult stuff. I’ve got a pretty nice following so far.

- I like to advocate for various social rights within Unison.

Artwork:

[dykeyote]

why is nova bad rep?

nova is a travesty to me bc shes very fun and i really enjoy her as a character in every way besides the things i think are uncomfortable and the bit with the haircut is objectively the funniest way to handle a trans char and also says a lot abt gender in jv's time period which i find very interesting!! there are good things abt nova and there are even good things abt her being trans and i do not think she is written to b intentionally mean spirited but like in my personal opinion the way they go about like ..... the specific way they write her fixation on nureyev isss uh quite poorly handled and sort of uncomfortable? it can call to mind some sort of unfortunate stereotypes about the idea of trans women harassing and coercing cis men and it isnt great

and like ive said jv has trans characters who absolutely can also brush up against being unintentionally transphobic due to being pretty shitty people but Dont end up Actually being so, and i think theres a few reasons for that that nova fails to dodge - for one thing, their transness is never ... Highlighted in any way while theyre doing the shitty stuff. which isnt to say theyre not explicitly trans - they absolutely are, cecil is pretty clearly stated to be identical to cass and has a very feminine voice and pilot uses they/them pronouns the entire time. we Know that theyre trans, but theres never any scenes that explicitly .... Point Out their transness in any explicit way, so when they do their shitty stuff we arent necessarily Fixated on their transness its not being called to attention . nova has an entire scene that points out the fact that she Is a trans woman . and itd still be uncomfortable if it wasnt there and i dont think the scene is inherently bad on its own its funny i like it but in context it does make it feel More iffy 2 me because it is explicitly Reminding you that yes dear listener!! she is trans!! in a way that other trans charas who are shitty ppl arent

another thing is that the main people that those other two examples are put in juxtaposition with is juno, who is also trans. JUNO is the one who calls cecil an apartment complex of demons, JUNO is actively trying to take down pilot. it makes it feel less like a Trans Thing to be fucked up because the person going hey, this is fucked up youre the worst, is Also trans . and we can go to cecil for another more relevant example of this which is that cecil is kinda obsessed with juno too!! hes a little bit of a freak abt him!! but it doesnt feel like a trans thing because because juno is Also trans and hes like normal . nova doesnt Have that because he rfixation is very specifically on nureyev who is, as far as we know and can presume, a cis man. she is being juxtaposed by a Cis character instead of a Trans one. which is worsened by the fact that "trans woman harassing a cis guy who is not interested at all and is taken" is again not great either

and like you could change all those issues of course but tbh you dont even need to?? yeah itd be better if the subject of her affections was trans or if less attention was called to it but like literally you could also just write her like normally . tbh . you could literally just write her normally and make her not feel so pushy and like it would be fine . you could still make her have a huge thing for a cis guy character and make said cis guy character uninterested and just not write it in the specific way that they do that to me personally feels sort of unsavory especially given that she is the first like . canonical explicit trans woman in jv (as far as i remember) . its not hard to write characters normally is my conclusion

[potatogoats1blog]

Hello! Please read this before.. Before scrolling down my blog i guess

My name is Alex, you can call me Potato or Goat or Neko(what? You have new nicknames for me? YASSS SLAAY). I go by male and neutral(he/they) pronouns. If we're close enough, i stop caring of what pronouns you use with me💖💖

I speak Russian/Ukrainian, English(🗿), and Italian!

Ok so

My blog contains and may contain:

My art in general, shitposts, AU's and reblogs.

CHARISK - yes, i love this ship. Unless it's an incest version. (You may usually see the lesbian side of charisk here)

FONCEST - I don't like it in general, i just draw it sometimes. Comissioned or requested

GORE/BLOOD/AB×SE, S.HARM/DEATH OR MENTIONS OF IT - besides of cute things, I draw this! I do not support abuse in general, verbal or physical, because it's fucking awful. But i do like doing bloody arts ehehe. Don't ask about the SH part

Swearing, cursing, or saying bad words in general.

PLEASE do not interact with me if you're:

* Homo/bi/trans/a-phobic. I am part of LGBTQ+ community and i will post gays as often as i want to

* Pro-pife, War supporter, antifeminist or asshole in general

* Pedophile or Pedophilia supporter.

* Frans supporter, unless it's Echotale. 90% of Frans(and Chans and Sasriel!) is pedophilia, because the age gap between Frisk/Chara/Asriel and Sans is HUGE AS FUCK. I will not ban you or anything, but please do not interact with me

* that one person who won't let me use pronouns for Frisk/Chara in other Au's. Look, english is not easy, and sometimes i accidentally may misgender characters.

EDITED this part cuz it sounded awful

Ok so.. In my charisk AU i use she/her for both chara and frisk! If you're uncomfy with that just don't interact/tell me to unsub you. Sure it's sad but hey I'm doing what makes me happy in a way that is comfy for me. Deal with it or kindly leave

UPD: PLEASE DO NOT SUB TO ME IF YOU'RE A CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. im not exluding you. I will treat you like a regular person and that means that i WILL yell and curse if im angry with you. The point is, i don't want to deal with your parents or anyone. If we end in an argument, i may mentally harm you with my words, i don't want that. So please be careful

(Being a special child doesn't free you from the consequences of your actions, at least here. Please stay at a safe distance from me so we're not causing problems to eachother!)

I think that's all! Thank you for reading

[6/07/2022]

[Updated 18/08/2022]

Warning list:

BAN list:

[im-not-here-im-dead]

Okay since it’s pride month, here are all my 🌈utdr headcanons :D🌈

Btw, this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list or 100% unquestionable truth. Just me having fun :D

Undertale

Frisk:

they/them nonbinary. No ifs ands or buts about it.

Toriel:

I have said it before and I’ll say it again.

Aromantic Toriel

(Applause)

And she’s pansexual

(More applause)

And a she/her demiwoman

(Even more applause)

Napstablook:

The they/that agender we love to see

Sans:

Aroace without a doubt

he/him and star/stars pronouns B)

As for gender, he’s kind of an enigma, but I’m thinkin’ star and Alphys are transmasc and transfemme solidarity and you can tear this out of my cold dead hands

Papyrus:

Also definitely aroace. Possibly oriented aroace considering a certain attractive, rectangular beauty, but who knows ;P

Papyrus using he/they pronouns fills me with great joy

They’re definitely a dude, but like, he’s a guy, but squiggly. Like, Man but reskinned with Bowling Ally Carpet. You know the ones. Does that make sense ?

MK:

No pronouns nonbinary lets gooooo

Undyne:

Lesbian. L e s b i a n .

she/her is her favorite but will also sometimes use they/them, he/him, ze/hir, ae/aer, spear/spears and other neopronouns as well as she/her

Mad Mew Mew

The sapphic transfemme we love to see

she/her

Alphys:

Bisexual Disaster

she/they trans woman

Mettaton:

The gnc trans guy we love to see

he/him

I really like the asexual headcanon for him

Asgore:

Bisexual Disaster Reprise (orchestral cover)

I can imagine Asgore going by just he/him for the majority of his life but at some point getting introduced to fleur/fleurs (either by Undyne or Alphys) and absolutely loving them

Not really much gender fuckery going on in fleurs case aside from the usual gender-nonconformity. Fleur is just the kind of fellow who likes to feel handsome and also pretty. Good for him !

Flowey / Asriel:

Generally good with he/him, but often flounders between he/him, it/its, they/them, and every combination of the three. Eh. Thinking about it is headache inducing (I can relate)

Chara:

they/it agender I will die on this hill

Deltarune

Kris:

they/them nonbinary. No. Ifs. Ands. Or. Buts.

As for their orientation? Idk. I like the aroace headcanon for them

Susie:

she/he butch lesbian let’s fucking gooooooooo

Ralsei:

he/they/fae

Gender? Honestly, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Still questioning their orientation

Noelle:

she/her

Trans and gay real and true

Berdly:

People have headcanoned this bird as trans in every direction and I approve. Transfemme Bigender Berdly makes me especially happy

I think Berdly would be a bit of a pronoun hoarder. He/him, she/her, zhe/zher, e/em, and pix/pixel to name a few

Also, I will be claiming her for the aromantics as well. C’mon boys we got another one

Lancer:

Just a little guy :>

Also, you thought Berdly was a pronoun hoarder? Well zher hoard doesn’t hold a candle to Lancers. He/him, spade/spades, star/stars, cloud/clouds, splat/splats, blue/blues, rain/bows/rainbowself, cake/cakes, spark/sparks, etc! And spades collection will only grow in the years to come. Good for blue !

Roulx Kaard:

You cannot tell me this motherfucker doesn’t use he/thone pronouns

Queen

she/her agender for the win

Seam:

they/them (preferably none)

Gender apathetic

Ace

Jevil:

Any pronouns

Gender? I hardly know ‘er! Uee hee hee!

Abrosexual

Starwalker:

xe/xem/xir

Nonbinary

Nubert:

they/them man

My man !

Alright. That’s all I got for now. Happy pride :]

[justmenoworries]

Not Up For Interpretation - An Essay On Nonbinary - Erasure

(Trigger Warning: Misgendering, Transphobia, Nonbinary-phobia)

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know this was a long time coming. I’ve made several posts about my frustrations concerning this topic and how much it hurt me just how socially accepted erasing an entire identity still is. While representation marches on and things have become better for nonbinary people as a whole, we still battle with a lot of prejudice - both intentional and unintentional.

In this essay, I want to discuss just how our identities are being erased almost daily, why that is harmful and hurtful and what we all can do to change that.

Chapters:

What does Non-binary mean?

Nonbinary- representation in media

So what’s the problem?

How do we fix it?

1. What Does Non-binary Mean?

Non-binary is actually an umbrella term. It includes pretty much every gender-identity that’s neither one or the other so to speak, for example, agender.

Agender means feeling detachment from the gender spectrum in general. If you’re agender, you most likely feel a distance to the concept of gender as a whole, that it doesn’t define you as a person.

There are many identities that classify under non-binary: There’s gender-fluid (you feel you have a gender, but it’s not one gender specifically and can change), demi-gender (identifying as a gender partially, but not completely) and many others.

Sometimes, multiple non-binary identities can mix and match.

Most non-binary people use they/them pronouns, but like with so many things, it varies.

Some nonbinary-people (like me) go by two pairs of pronouns. I go by both she/her and they/them, because it’s what feels most comfortable at the moment. But who knows, maybe in the future I’ll switch to they/them exclusively or expand to he/him.

There is no one defining non-binary experience. Nb-people are just as varied and different as binary people, who go by one specific gender.

There are non-binary people who choose to go solely by she/her or he/him and that’s okay too. It doesn’t make them any more or less non-binary and their identity is still valid.

If your head’s buzzing a bit by now: That’s okay. It’s a complicated topic and no one expects you to understand all of it in one chapter of one essay.

Just know this: If a person identifies as non-binary, you should respect their decision and use the pronouns they go with.

It’s extremely hurtful to refer to someone who already told you that they use they/them pronouns with she/her or he/him, or use they/them to refer to a person who uses she/her.

Think about it like using a trans-person’s deadname: It’s rude, it’s harmful and it shows complete disrespect for the person.

Non-binary people have existed for a very long time. The concept isn’t new. The idea that there are only two genders, with every other identity being an aberration to the norm, is largely a western idea, spread through colonialism.

The Native American people use “Two-Spirit” to describe someone who identifies neither as a man nor a woman. The term itself is relatively new, but the concept of a third gender is deeply rooted in many Native American cultures.

(Author’s Note: If you are not Native American, please do not use it. That’s cultural appropriation.)

In India, the existence of a third gender has always been acknowledged and there are many terms specifically for people who don’t identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth.

If you’re interested in learning more about non-binary history and non-binary identities around the world, I’d recommend visiting these websites:

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/History_of_nonbinary_gender

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender-variant_identities_worldwide

https://thetempest.co/2020/02/01/history/the-history-of-nonbinary-genders-is-longer-than-you-think/

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gender-variance-around-the-world

Also, maybe consider giving this book a try:

Nonbinary Gender Identities: History, Culture, Resources by Charlie Mcnabb

2. Non-binary Representation In Media

The representation of non-binary people in mainstream media hasn’t been... great, to put it mildly.

Representation, as we all know, is important.

Not only does it give minorities a chance to see themselves in media and feel heard and acknowledged. It also normalizes them.

For example, seeing a black Disney-princess was a huge deal for many black little girls, because they could finally say there was someone there who looked like them. They could see that being white wasn’t a necessity to be a Disney princess.

Seeing a canonically LGBT+ character in a children’s show teaches kids that love is love, no matter what gender you’re attracted to. At the same time, older LGBT+ viewers will see themselves validated and heard in a movie that features on-screen LGBT+ heroes.

There’s been some huge steps in the right direction in the last few years representation-wise.

Not only do we have more LGBT+ protagonists and characters in general, we’ve also begun to question and call out harmful or bigoted portrayals of the community in media, such as “Bury Your Gays” or the “Depraved Homosexual”.

With that being said: Let’s take a look at how Non-binary representation holds up in comparison, shall we?

This is Double Trouble, from the children’s show “She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power”.

They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns. They’re also  a slimy, duplicitous lizard-person who can change their shape at will.

Um, yeah.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Did I mention they’re also the only non-binary character in the entire show? And that they’re working with a genocidal dictator in most of the episodes they’re in?

Yikes.

Let’s look at another example.

These three (in order of appearance) are Stevonnie, Smoky Quartz and Shep. Three characters appearing in the kid’s show “Steven Universe” and it’s epilogue series “Steven Universe: Future”.

All of them identify as non-binary and use they/them as pronouns.

Stevonnie and Smoky Quartz are the result of a boy and a girl being fused together through weird alien magic.

Shep is a regular human, but they only appeared in one episode. In an epilogue series that only hardcore fans actually watched.

Well, I mean...

One out of three isn’t that bad, right?

Maybe we should pick an example from a series for older viewers.

Say hello to Doppelganger, a non-binary superhuman who goes by they/them, from the Amazon-series “The Boys”.

They’re working for a corrupt superhero-agency and use their power of shape-shifting to trick people who pose a threat to said agency into having sex with them. And then blackmail those people with footage of said sex.

....

Do I even need to say it?

If you’ve paid attention during the listing of these examples, you might have noticed a theme.

Namely that characters canonically identifying as non-binary are either

supernatural in some way, shape or form,

barely have a presence in the piece of media they’re in,

both.

Blink-and-you-miss-it-manner of representation aside, the majority of these characters fall squarely under what we call “Othering”.

“Othering” describes the practice of portraying minorities as supernatural creatures or otherwise inhuman. Or to say it bluntly: As “The Other”.

“Othering” is a pretty heinous method. Not only does it portray minorities as inherently abnormal and “different in a bad way”. It also goes directly against what representation is actually for: Normalizing.

As a general rule of thumb: If your piece of media has humans in it, but the only representation of non-white, non-straight people are explicitly inhuman... yeah, that’s bad.

So is there absolutely no positive representation for us out there?

Not quite.

As rare as human non-binary characters in media are to find, they do exist.

Here we have Bloodhound! A non-binary human hunter who uses they/them pronouns, from the game “Apex Legends”.

It’s been confirmed by the devs and the voice actress that they’re non-binary.

Nice!

These are Frisk (bottom) and Chara (top) from the game “Undertale”. While their exact gender identity hasn’t been disclosed, they both canonically use they/them pronouns, so it’s somewhere on the non-binary spectrum.

Two human children who act as the protagonist (Frisk) and antagonist (Chara), depending on how you play the game. (Interpretations vary on the antagonist/protagonist-thing, to say the least.)

Cool!

......

And, yep, that’s it.

As my little demonstration here showed, non-binary representation in media is rare. Good non-binary representation is even rarer.

Which is why those small examples of genuinely good representation are so important to the Non-binary community!

It’s hard enough to have to prove you exist. It’s even harder to prove your existence is not abnormal or unnatural.

If you’d like to further educate yourself on representation, it’s impact on society and why it matters, perhaps take a second to read through these articles:

https://www.criticalhit.net/opinion/representation-media-matters/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-on-screen-representation-matters-according-to-these-teens

https://jperkel.github.io/sciwridiversity2020/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/22/why-is-equal-representation-in-media-important/?sh=25f2ccc92a84

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-representation-the-media-matters

3. So What’s The Problem?

The problem, as is the case with so many things in the world, is prejudice.

Actually, that’s not true.

There’s not a problem, there are multiple problems. And their names are prejudice, ignorance and bigotry.

Remember how I said human non-binary representation is rare?

Yeah, very often media-fans don’t help.

Let’s take for example, the aforementioned Frisk and Chara from “Undertale”.

Despite the game explicitly using they/them to refer to both characters multiple times, the majority of players somehow got it into their heads that Frisk’s and Chara’s gender was “up for interpretation”.

There is a huge amount of fan art straight-up misgendering both characters and portraying them as binary and using only he/him or she/her pronouns.

The most egregious examples are two massively popular fan-animated web shows: “Glitchtale”, by Camila Cuevas and “Underverse” by Jael Peñaloza.

Both series are very beloved by the Undertale-fanbase and even outside of it. Meaning for many people, those two shows might be their first introduction to “Undertale” and it’s two non-binary human characters.

Take a wild guess what both Camila and Jael did with Frisk and Chara.

Underverse, X-Tale IV:

(Transcript: “Frisk lied to me in the worst possible way... I... I will never forgive him.”)

Underverse, X-Tale V:

(Transcript: “I-It’s Chara... and it’s a BOY.”)

Glitchtale, My Promise:

(Transcript: (Referring to Frisk) “I’m not scared of an angry boy anymore.”)

Glitchtale, Game Over Part 1:

(Transcript: (Referring to Chara) “It’s ok little boy.”)

This... this isn’t okay.

Not only do both of these pieces of fan-art misgender two non-binary characters, the creators knew beforehand that Frisk and Chara use they/them-pronouns, but made the conscious choice to ignore that.

To be fair, in a video discussing “Underverse”, Jael said that only X-Tale Frisk and Chara, the characters you see in the Underverse-examples above, are male, while the characters Frisk and Chara from the main game remained non-binary and used they/them (time-stamp 10:34).

Still, that doesn’t erase the fact that Jael made up alternate versions of two non-binary characters specifically to turn them male. Or that, while addressing the issue, Jael was incredibly dismissive and even mocked the people who felt hurt by her turning two non-binary characters male. Jael also went on to make a fairly non-binary-phobic joke in the video, in which she equated gender identities beyond male and female to identifying as an object.

Jael (translated): “I don’t care if people say the original Frisk and Chara are male, female, helicopters, chairs, dogs or cats, buildings, clouds...”

That’s actually a very common joke among transphobes, if not to say the transphobe-joke:

“Oh, you identify as X? Well then I identify as an attack helicopter!”

If you’re trans, chances are you’ve heard this one, or a variation of it, a million times before.

I certainly have.

I didn’t laugh then and I’m not laughing now.

(Author’s note: I might be angry at both of them for what they did, but I do not, under any circumstances, support the harassment of creators. If you’re thinking about sending either Jael or Camila hate-mail - don’t. It won’t help.)

Jael’s reaction is sadly common in the Undertale fandom. Anyone speaking up against Chara’s and Frisk’s identity being erased is immediately bludgeoned with the “up for interpretation”-argument, despite that not once being the case in the game.

And even with people who do it right and portray Frisk and Chara as they/them, you’ll have dozens of commenters swarming the work with sentences among the lines of “Oh but I think Frisk is a boy/girl! And Chara is a girl/boy!”

By the way, this kind of thing only happens to Frisk and Chara.

Every other character in “Undertale” is referred to and portrayed with their proper pronouns of she/her or he/him.

But not the characters who go by they/them.

Their gender is “up for interpretation”.

Because obviously, their identity couldn’t possibly be canonically non-binary.

Sadly, Frisk and Chara are not alone in this.

Remember Bloodhound?

And how I said they’d been confirmed as non-binary and using they/them pronouns by both the creators and the voice actress?

It seems for many players, that too translated to “up for interpretation”.

(Transcript: “does it matter what they call him? He, her, it, they toaster oven, it doesn’t matter”)

(Transcript: “I’m like 90 % sure Bloodhound is a dude because he could just sound like a girl and by their age that I’m assuming looks around 10-12 because I’ve known many males who have sounded like a female when they were younger”)

(Transcript: “I don’t care it will always be a He. F*ck that non-binary bullsh*t.”)

(Transcript: “Bloodhound is clearly female.”)

(Transcript: “I’m not calling a video game character they/them”)

(Transcript: “exactly. The face was never fully shown neither was the gender so I’d say it means that the player is Bloodhound. So it’s your gender and you refer to “him” as yourself. It’s like a self insertion in my eyes.”)

So, let me get this straight:

If a character, even a player character, uses she/her or he/him, you can accept it, no questions asked.

But when a character uses they/them, suddenly their identity and gender are “up for interpretation”?

This attitude is also widely prevalent in real life.

Many languages only include pronouns for men and women, with no third option available. Non-binary people are often forced to make up their own terms, because their language doesn’t provide one.

Non-binary people often don’t fit within other people’s ideas of gender, so they get excluded altogether. Worse, non-binary people are often the victims of misgendering, denial of their identity or even straight-up violence when coming out.

People will often tell us that we look like a certain gender, so we should only use one set of gendered pronouns. Never mind that that’s not what we want. Never mind that that’s not who we are.

Non-binary people are also largely omitted from legal documentation and studies. We cannot identify as non-binary at our workplace, because using they/them pronouns is considered “unprofessional”. We don’t have our own bathrooms like men and women do. Our gender is seen as less valid than male and female, so even that basic thing is denied to us. I’ve had to use the women’s restroom my entire life, because if I go into a male restroom, I’ll be yelled at or made fun off or simply get told I took the wrong door. It’s extremely uncomfortable for me and I wish I didn’t have to do it.

And since non-binary people aren’t seen as “real transgender-people”, we often don’t receive the medical care we need. This often renders us unable to feel good within our bodies, because the treatment and help we get is wildly inadequate.

It’s especially horrible for intersex people (people who are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit solely into the male/female category) who are often forced to change their bodies to fit within the male/female gender binary.

And you better believe each of those problems is increased ten-fold for non-binary people of color.

We are ignored and dismissed as “confused”, because of who we are.

Representation is a way for Non-binary people to show the world they exist, that they’re here and that they too have stories to tell.

But how can we, when every character that represents us is either othered, barely there or gets taken away from us?

We are not “up for interpretation”.

Neither are the characters in media who share our identity.

And it’s time to stop pretending we ever were.

For more information about Non-Binary Erasure and how harmful it is, you can check out these articles:

https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/common-non-binary-erasure/

https://www.dailydot.com/irl/nonbinary-people-racism/

https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Nonbinary_erasure

https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.422/

https://medium.com/an-injustice/everyday-acts-of-non-binary-erasure-49ee970654fb

https://medium.com/national-center-for-institutional-diversity/the-invisible-labor-of-liberating-non-binary-identities-in-higher-education-3f75315870ec

https://musingsofanacademicasexual.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/dear-sirmadam-a-commentary-on-non-binary-erasure/

4. How Do We Fix It?

Well, first things first: Stop acting like we don’t exist.

And kindly stop other people from doing it too.

We are a part of the LGBT+ community and we deserve to be acknowledged, no matter what our pronouns are.

Address non-binary people with the right pronouns. Don’t argue with them about their identity, don’t comment on how much you think they look like a boy or a girl. Just accept them and be respectful.

If a non-binary person tells you they have two sets of pronouns, for example he/him and they/them, don’t just use one set of pronouns. That can come off as disingenuous. Alternate between the pronouns, don’t leave one or the other out. It’ll probably be hard at first, but if you keep it up, you’ll get used to it pretty quickly.

If you’re witnessing someone harass a non-binary person over their identity, step in and help them.

And please, don’t partake in non-binary erasure in media fandoms.

Don’t misgender non-binary characters, don’t “speculate” on what you think their gender might be. You already know their gender and it’s non-binary. It costs exactly 0 $ to be a decent human being and accept that.

Support Non-Binary people by educating yourself about them and helping to normalize and integrate their identity.

In fact, here’s a list of petitions, organizations and articles who will help you do just that:

https://www.change.org/p/collegeboard-let-students-use-their-preferred-name-on-collegeboard-9abad81a-0fdf-435c-8fca-fe24a5df6cc7?source_location=topic_page

6 Ways to Support Your Non-Binary Child

7 Non-Negotiables for Supporting Trans & Non-Binary Students in Your Classroom

If Your Partner Just Came Out As Non-Binary, Here’s How To Support Them

How to Support Your Non-Binary Employees, Colleagues and Friends

Ko-fi page for the Nonbinary Wiki

The Sylvia Rivera Project, an organization who aims to give low-income and non-white transgender, intersex and non-binary people a voice

The Anti Violence Project “empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and supports survivors through counseling and advocacy."

The Trans Lifeline, a hotline for transgender people by transgender people

Tl:DR: Non-Binary representation is important. Non-Binary people still suffer from society at large not acknowledging our existence and forcing us to conform. Don’t be part of that problem by taking away what little representation we have. Educate yourself and do better instead. We deserve to be seen and heard.

[bag-of-queer-musketeers]

Greetings!

Welcome to our blog! This blog focuses on LGBT+/MOGAI/queer content, and we operate on a mostly queue basis (which means most of the things we post are reblogs sent to our queue). Our original post tag is "muskequeer post." We hope you enjoy your stay! Further details under the cut.

We do our best to be as open-minded as possible, and as such we will not tolerate exclusionism of any kind on this blog. Nor do we allow radfems (even trans inclusive ones), harassment/cancel/purity culture supporters, or those who support irl actions of pedophilia or incest (if you struggle with a paraphilia, you are welcome; our issue lies with those who do not see these things as wrong). Proshippers are also discouraged from interaction, although that is due to our personal discomfort with the community. Of course, there may be times that things slip through the cracks or are misunderstood and thus we reblog from someone who goes against these values or someone who has us on their DNI, but we will do our best to moderate the content of this blog to fit our above criteria. In return, we ask that you provide sources if you have concerns over someone we've reblogged from, and respect our decision making on who we interact with.

Here are some of the more active mods on this blog!

Mod Alterisa; she/her. Tag: magic is power and I have plenty

Mod Apollo; he/him, fleur/fleurs. Tag: every violin cover ever is stuck in my head

Mod Chara; they/them. Tag: you are filled with kindness and spite

Mod Daylily; they/them. Tag: resident ambassador of determination

Mod Justin; he/him, dra/drag. Tag: N/A

Mod Melody; he/him. Tag: N/A

Mod Name; app/apple. Tag: summoned for some business

Mod Nacorn; it/its, bee/bees. Tag: blank masks and needle swords

Mod Nicky; they/them, he/him. Tag: take me back to the nature I remember

Mod Tana/Takashi; he/him. Tag: support your local trans guy biker gang and buy me a milkshake

Mod Yu-Yu; she/her. Tag: drumroll please for your local femme

[cuttloose]

ive been reading up on old west gender studies for reasons outside of this blog but i love connecting dots so heres some chara (main verse) related notes: 

the only people who know sadie is trans are people she’s entrusted with the information (which is limited to jake and arthur in my mind). passing is not her priority and has never been integral to her gender expression, but she very much does. it’s helped keep her safe and out of old timey tabloids which frequently reported and outed trans people for shock value. 

passing back then was possible! even more so for trans women than trans men, as “mainstream” cis society couldn’t grasp why anyone would value being a woman.

with both her parents dying before the age of five, sadie did the lion’s share of her own upbringing. as a result, she can hardly remember any time she spent living with her dead name. when she was taken in as a ranch hand at ten, she was taken in as sadie.

she obviously doesn’t have the lexicon for transness that we have now and wouldn’t know to identify herself as trans, but she will shoot you without remorse if you infer she is anything other than a woman. 

in my heart john is nonbinary but i want you all to know i am not using that as a synonym for androgyny or a famed “third gender.” i think he would rather die than start dressing more effeminately, i just also think that at his core he identifies more with being a person than being a man. his life long pursuit of masculinity is only because that’s the world he was weened on and because he has a “dad, look at me doing a backflip! am i doing it? do you love me now?” complex. if you dropped him in 2021 the tinder bio abigail swiped on would’ve had “he/they” pronouns in it.